Feminists Don’t Wear Pink curated by Scarlett Curtis

‘Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (and Other Lies)’ is a selection of essays/poems/thoughts written by women about what their feminism means to them. It is the first audiobook I have ever purchased, and to be honest the jury is 100% still out on audiobooks, but equally 100% in love with this book. I’m going to level with you right from the beginning – I haven’t finished it, yet. But I definitely plan on doing so, just as soon as I get my hands on a physical copy.

Unfortunately, I really struggled with the audiobook format. I was hoping that it may help solve my ‘reading in the car makes me feel sick’ problem, but alas that was not the case. This is potentially my fault. I know myself as a reader and I know that I appreciate re-reading, highlighting lines, and scribblings in margins – something a book like this definitely needs! So I’m not ruiling audiobooks out completely yet; just being more mindful about the type of book I could listen to – fiction, a memoir, comedy?

Despite not being as comfortable with the audiobook as I would have a liked, a major perk for me of this format was the variety of narrators. I appreciate not all audiobooks have multiple narrators, but for me it really helped to highlight that there were a number of different voices talking in this book. Overall, it feels like there is a diverse & inclusive set of voices displayed here – although without a physical copy to peruse this is difficult to verify. What I would have enjoyed – and maybe Scarlett Curtis could compile a follow up – was more voices from your ‘everyday woman’; the office workers, coffee shop barristas, health care professionals, and, teachers.

A couple of the earlier pieces in ‘Feminists Don’t Wear Pink’ felt a lot like poetry to me. This was probably emphasised by the audio format, however, it is something that I often miss when reading non-fiction – literary creativity. I sometimes feel like the true power of words can be lost in a non-fiction work focused too narrowly on the facts; words are wonderful, magical, illuminating. We should be making use of their full potential in all aspects of writing.

One of my favourite chapters throughout the whole book was Jameela Jamil’s. Something about what she was saying really connected with me, and I ended up listening to her chapter at least three times.

“If we’re going to be good feminists then I think we have a responsibility to nurture not only ourselves, but the future men who are going to stand next to our future women”

And I would like today to ask that we should begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.

It is difficult to judge the overall tone of the book; each contributor talks about a different subject, from a different perspective, and with a different outlook. That is part of what makes this book so special – how open, broad, and representative it is. This is a great book to give to someone who is just being introduced to the concept of feminism. It helps to bust a lot of myths, and drive home that feminism is for everyone, and can be owned by everyone.

I’m really interested to hear your opinions on audiobooks, and whether you have a preferred style or type of book to listen to? Let me know in the comments below…